It's all coming together..

[janus77]

Well, after many weeks of mucking around with my new tool kit from torpedo 7, and many mistakes and disasters along the way, I seem to have brought it all together last night.

Helped a mate get his old Repco with Shimano sora gear on it back in working order, was a pretty basic job. The hubs were running very rough, and the BB was giving a lot of resistance.

As it's an oldie and he's not sure he'll use it heaps, I didn't bother degreasing the hubs, just unscrewed the cones and squirted a bunch of new lithium grease in there. They're running quite nice now, old grease gets to a similar consistency to Molasses..

The BB we cleaned out and degreased, managed to drop a bunch of bearings over the laundry floor, somehow we found them all though. was trying to put the bearing housings on the BB and insert it, didn't realise for about 15 minutes that the easy way to do it was grease the cups and set the bearings in there and screw it on. Anyway, it's running freely now too.

Then pumped up the tyres, adjusted the brakes.

Ran the chain through some kero in the chain cleaner device that came with the tool kit, it seemed to take the rust off pretty well, then rinsed it off, and dried, and finally applied lube.

Shifters were downtube friction type, just loosened the cable holder on the RD and set the shifter to the lowest position, locked it in, all the gears seem to work.

Last thing which I didn't do and the bike needs is the headset is seizing a little, not dangerously so yet, but it catches a lot. Haven't got any idea about the headset service though. Any advice on things to be careful of when doing this? do you just take the stem out and it kinda screws out from there?

Anyway, I'm just stoked to have gotten an old bike back on the road, it was good fun, I'm sitting here with black stained hands grinning

[MountGower]

I reckon the biggest disapointment surrounding the successful bearing adjustment on old BBs and C&C hubs is the fact that it'll probably be a while before you have to do it again.

Maybe word will get out and you'll have a rash of 'mates' phoning you.
Congrats on the success. You just need to start a thread about hand cleaner now, Janus.

[janus77]

Hahaha, absolutely (though I'll keep a bit of grime on for pure "street cred" for now, ha!)

[thomas_cho]

Headsets are far easier. The ones I have worked on were "sealed" cartridge bearings. However, they can be taken apart, and you can renew the grease in there.

Generally if there is no damage to the bearing cup races, its just a matter of cleaning, regreasing, and reassembling, and it should be as good as new.

Of course I am assuming that you have the right sized tools to get the locking ring off and back on again.

[rustguard]

one thing to watch out for when pulling them apart is the washer between the top nut and bearing cup usually has a notch that locates on a groove in the fork steerer tube. Sometimes the washer will spin a little out of the notch, if you pull it off from there it will chew the threads a bit. If the washer feels tight just spin it back until the notch lines up with the groove and it will slide straight off. Does not happen all that often but Ive had quite a few do it over the years. If you are on a really tight budget and the cups are a touch worn you can spin them 90 degrees, but this is just bush mechanics for an old hack.

[Mulger bill]

Goodonya Janus, no going back from here

Shaun

[moosterbounce]

Love it!! Practice on someone else's bike first